The UK government is in negotiations with France on a scheme to return illegal migrants who have crossed the Channel in small boats.
In return, the British government would accept legal migrants seeking family reunion in the UK.
The French interior ministry told the BBC this would be a pilot scheme based on "a one-for-one principle", with the aim of discouraging smuggling networks.
The Conservatives said Labour's decision to scrap the Rwanda deportation agreement last year had removed a deterrent to illegal immigration.
UK Transport Minister Lilian Greenwood said the government was talking to France about migration issues but did not comment on the possibility of a removals deal.
She told Sky News: "I can confirm that there are discussions ongoing with the French government about how we stop this appalling and dangerous trade in people that's happening across the English Channel."
The talks with France were first reported by the Financial Times.
"France's interest is to discourage migrants and smuggling networks from attempting to reach the UK from France," the country's interior ministry told the BBC.
The ministry suggested the pilot scheme could pave the way for an agreement on migrant returns between European Union member states.
"It is based on a one-for-one principle: for each legal admission under family reunification, there would be a corresponding readmission of undocumented migrants who managed to cross [the Channel]", a spokesperson for the ministry said.
Peter Walsh, senior researcher at the Migration Observatory, said the "deterrent effect of this measure is likely to depend on how many small boats arrivals are transferred" from the UK back to France.
"In the short term, it won't reduce our responsibility for the number of asylum seekers we take in," Mr Walsh told the BBC.
"The hope would be if we send sufficiently large numbers back to France, that would have a deterrent effect."
